PM: Well it's great to be here in Bendigo and to have the opportunity to be at this opening of The Bendigo Centre.
It's great to see what the Bendigo Bank is doing in supporting financial services across regional Australia, but also supporting jobs across regional Australia as well.
So it is a great opportunity for me to be here today, to be a part of what is genuinely an important local community event.
Speaking about jobs brings us back to the global financial crisis.
The Government's task is to do whatever is possible to reduce the impact of the global financial crisis on Australian jobs.
And that now is brought into sharp (inaudible) again by the announcement of Rio Tinto on its own jobs cuts.
The global financial crisis is becoming a crisis for the real economy across the world, which in turn becomes a global employment crisis as well.
The task of government is this - to do whatever is possible and practical to stabilise the financial system, to support employment and to support families during this challenging time which lies ahead.
That underpins the Government's decision to introduce its Economic Security Strategy - $10.4 billion in payments to pensioners and to carers and to families, and to support first home buyers.
This is stage one of the Government's response to the impact of the global financial crisis on the real economy and jobs, and the Government will have further announcements to make in the future about what needs to be done further to reduce the impact of this global crisis on the Australian economy.
Over to you folks.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what are you doing to support regional businesses, we've suffered a lot of job losses (inaudible)
PM: First and foremost, the $10.4 billion Economic Security Strategy goes right across Australia. For example, in the last few days we have had payments which have gone out already to pensioners and carers right across the system.
That's been really important in terms of ensuring that those payments goes to pensioners in rural and regional Australia as well.
So on Wednesday and Thursday of this week, literally millions of dollars in payments going out to pensioners and carers in Bendigo, pensioners and carers and families right across the country.
Really important because guess what, every local shop, every local supermarket, every local store needs to be supported by Australian consumers going out there and using these funds which the Government has provided through the Economic Security Strategy.
But that's just one. Secondly, recently I've convened a meeting of the Council of Australian Local Governments in Canberra, including representatives from local authorities in regional Victoria and regional Australia.
And what we've done through that is provide a $300 million up-front stimulus package to go to local authorities right across the country as well, including here.
On top of that again, we have made a further payment of $15.1 billion to the states and territories through the Council of Australian Governments - $3 billion plus of which flows through in the year ahead
And that means more funding for hospitals, more funding for schools, more funding for other critical government investment, including social housing across regional Australia as well.
None of these things add up to a total solution. But if I was to put these three things together, the Economic Security Strategy phase one is capable of creating some 77,000 jobs.
The Council of Australian Governments package - $15.1 billion - capable of creating some 133,000 jobs.
All of these measures are designed to support the economy, support jobs and support families.
But this is tough, and 2009 is going to be tough as well, but we stand ready to take whatever future action is necessary to support jobs as well.
JOURNALIST: Can you guarantee the Government will fully fund the Bendigo GP Superclinic?
PM: We will honour fully our pre-election commitments. Absolutely and fully.
And the reason why we made undertakings about GP Superclinics is to make sure that we've got the best spread of GP services and specialist services in local communities like this.
For example, I was in Darwin yesterday, the day before. Felt like yesterday. This week in Darwin, in Palmerston, the pre-election commitment we made to open a GP Superclinic there will be honoured.
It's difficult doing the organisational work on the ground to get it ready. Make sure that your expression of interest process is proper and done thoroughly. But let me tell you we are absolutely determined to honour in full, our commitment to every local community.
Why? Mums and dads want to make sure we've got the best provision of local GP and other allied health services on the ground.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) ABC Learning (inaudible)
PM: This is a really tough challenge for working families with little kids right across the country.
The previous Government allowed this company, ABC Learning to get 25 per cent control of the long day care child care market in Australia.
And therefore when that company gets itself into trouble, guess what, a huge slice of the mums and dads of kids in Australia find themselves in real trouble.
So either you could say, ‘Well that's not my problem, we'll just let the market sort that out' or you say, ‘actually mums and dads have got a real problem on their hands right now'.
And our belief is this, that it's really important to support mums and dads and little kids at this time.
So therefore the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, has acted entirely properly in providing two amounts of funding, totalling about $50 million to ensure that those companies, which have been deemed by the receiver to be unviable, can remain open through to January and in some cases March, to enable parents to transition to other viable child care centres.
Otherwise, you just leave people in the lurch and I don't think that's the right thing to do.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, do you plan to apologise to the hundreds of Australian who are raised in institutions?
PM: On the particular report that you're referring to?
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Which report are you referring to?
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: I've just returned to Australia about one this morning. I'll get fully briefed on that one and I'm sure the Government, through the relevant minister will make the appropriate statement.
The other thing I could just add in terms of the questions which have been asked, is to make a general comment about climate change as well.
There's some debate out there in the general community at the moment about climate change. Can I just say, it's very simple to this Government.
This Government is determined to get the balance right on acting on climate change.
This Government will get attacked from the left and from the right. This Government will be attacked by green groups on the left for not going far enough. We'll be attacked on the hard right by various businesses for going too far.
Our job is to get the balance right, because if we do not act on climate change long-term then let me tell you it will come and deliver a huge economic burden to Australia if we fail to act, quite apart from the environmental consequences.
So you're going to have people out there on the left, some of the green groups saying that we should shut down the coal industry overnight.
You're going to have people out there like the Liberal party on the far right saying don't do anything at all.
We intend to get the balance right, and the Government is confident it will get the balance right. It will be a tough debate but we believe it is necessary for regional Australia, rural Australia, it's necessary for the whole nation and it's necessary for long-term planning for the future.